Today teacher, tomorrow friend.

Our Christmas season was fantastic.  We had so many sales and sale offers we actually ended up having to turn down or postpone offers to host since we were running out of time and merchandise.  We sold the vast majority of our stock, which is great since we were running out of space to keep it all.  We had a sale almost every weekend beginning at the end of October.  Our most successful sales have always been open-house sales in which a family will host us in their home and invite their circle of friends and coworkers to come be a part of our cause.  This type of "globally conscious," "fair-trade goods" party has become increasingly trendy lately and Resilient Crafts is only too happy to give local families the chance to support a good cause.
Our artisans have certainly benefited.  As of yet none will be living off of what they made, but these are women who would not otherwise be contributing to their family's income at all.  So any amount they can bring in is a source of pride for them.  All of our ladies made some money, and some made a surprisingly large amount.  Each woman is given 50% of the proceeds from each item she makes when it sells.  We use the other 50% to purchase more materials.  So when we decide upon prices, we make sure that the artisan is given a fair amount and that RC will make back the cost of materials so that our program can be sustainable.

Beaders at work

This Saturday was the first time we were able to meet to craft in a few months.  Our artisans were very excited to begin again.  They've clearly missed the community of friends.  The majority of our women have very limited English language skills and we have at least 6 language groups represented, but it's been beautiful to see how unnecessary oral communication is to the growth of friendships.  As I picked up my carload of ladies on Saturday morning, they all greeted each other warmly by name, and when we got out at the church where we meet, a group of women who had already been dropped off began waving and calling out greetings as soon as they saw us.
This week we were unable to use the community room, so we used a classroom instead.  This move turned out to have a really positive effect on our meeting.  The classroom had much less space than the community room, which we coordinators thought might be a problem.  But we'd forgotten how most of the world's cultures desire much less personal space than the average American.  The atmosphere was so familial and pleasant it made me realize how much I missed meeting in Deoka's living room like we used to before we grew out of it.

We had two groups--the beaders and the knitters.  Some of our proficient knitters were teaching our knitting-beginners a new skill.  This called for a certain amount of role-reversal since the knitting teachers of this week were the beginning crocheters last time we met.  As a general rule, whoever is teaching something new in a given session gets called "teacher" for that day, which always results in a lot of giggling.  This gave rise to perhaps my favorite limited-English conversation to date.  Jeanette (Burundi) remarks to Hari (Nepal), "Today you teacher." Everyone giggles. Saraswoti (Nepal) from across the room says, "Today teacher?  Tomorrow friend." Everyone smiles and nods.

Hari and Jeanette

In that simple acknowledgement, Saraswoti was able to put to words the exact focus of our ministry.  We're giving these women a chance to be and to have teachers and friends.  I'm not sure I saw that so clearly myself until now.  I've actually felt bad in the past that I, not being a crafter, have nothing to teach them.  But how much more beneficial it is to have the ladies themselves able to take turns teaching what they know and learning from others.  Since they've come to the US, they've been nothing but learners, and during the week they are faithful ESL students.  Saturday is their day to take a turn as teachers, and tomorrow they'll be friends.

Thin Mya and Dil

The kids created masterpieces of their own.